“Meatball” Molly McCann headlined Cage Warriors 90 over the weekend at Echo Arena in her hometown of Liverpool. Evertonian McCann claimed the flyweight title with a second-round Technical Knock Out over her old training partner, Bryony Tyrell. She recently did an interview with MMA Hour Live and had some pretty epic quotes.

Interviewer Ariel Helwani started out by commenting on how lively the atmosphere was in Liverpool and Meatball Molly admitted that she had celebrated so hard that she had lost her voice a bit.

“It feels good to be the champion.”

Her post-match celebration was what dreams are made of:

“I was home at about 4:00 am. I had 50 chicken nuggets and a Big Mac in bed.”

Her last meal before she went into the cage Saturday night?

“A BMT from Subway: Big Meaty Tasty with Southwest sauce.”

Meatball got her nickname because she worked the night shift at Subway while attending Uni.

“I used to steal all the cookies and the Southwest sauce.”

How she feels about becoming the first female from Liverpool to win a major title in combat sports:

“I couldn’t believe it was finally there. I had envisioned that so many times growing up and then when it happened, it was like me head fell off….. I jumped out of the cage and I missed [Liverpool fighter] Paddy [Pimblett] coming in and my coach. That’s how shocked my head was. I couldn’t believe it happened. It does feel amazing but It doesn’t feel like anything changed. Saturday was Saturday. I was back in the gym this morning and straight back to work, really, mate.”

Molly doesn’t see a reason to take any time off:

“Why? I got out unscathed. I didn’t get hurt. I am not injured. I am not in the UFC… I don’t have to knock on doors trying to find someone to take this belt off of me. I have to keep getting better, mate.“

Molly explains why she held up fingers in front of her opponent’s face before the end of the fight:

“She was supposed to submit me or ground and pound me. She tried to take me down once and I said, “One nil to me.” And then when she tried the second take down, I said, “Haha, two-nil.” And then the last time she shoved in on a single, I stuffed it. I said, “Bryony, that’s three-nil.”

“And then she looked at me… and I just hit her. So I seen online that people are saying it was a sucker punch, I was playing dirty. It’s like, no, look at it from a different angle, you see me go, “Three-nil, Bryony,” and then down hard… So there was no foul play. I’m the most honest, truest fighter that there is. I wouldn’t be having any of that. And I absolutely obliterated her.”

Meatball is not surprised that she was the headliner:

“I am selling more tickets than any of the other Cage Warriors champions, other than Paddy.”

She thinks that people are drawn to her because she has overcome a lot. Her father recently passed away and growing up, she was told she couldn’t attend the MMA gym because she was a girl. She said that it’s important to never give up and wants her legacy to be that she was a good role model for her city:

“We are known as the People’s Club and I’m kind of like the People’s Champ.”

“Scousers, we are just all cut from the same cloth. We love to fight, drink, and watch football (or soccer as you call it).”

“I am backed by Everton football club. Paddy is the red side and I am a Blue. There is so much banter between us.”

“When it’s derby day, I won’t even go into the gym because my team always loses.”

When asked how she can coexist with training mate, Paddy, who is a Red:

“The shit and the stick that we give each other in the gym, he’s downplaying it.

“Back in the day, half of city was blue and half was red and you wouldn’t cross certain roads to go on that side of the street. It’s a stone’s throw away from one another….

“Boxing, MMA and football is all we ever live for, all we ever talk about.”

Not a lot of people know this, but Molly was once a WSL footballer:

“This is going to sound super funny, but I actually used to play for Liverpool. The women’s team, Everton, was better than Liverpool.”

Like the Everton Ladies, McCann only recently went full-time.

The club does a lot for her before each fight:

“When I’m fighting, they will do loads of press for me, the players will send me videos on social media saying Good Luck. I’m just one of their own.

“Liverpool won’t do that for Paddy. Liverpool is a corporate, suit wearin’... Scousers don’t go to their games. It’s like bankers from Norway, whereas when you go to an Everton match, it’s the working class man who hasn’t got enough money for a ticket but still goes because it’s their team.”

She convinced Ariel right then and there to follow Everton and Molly noted that Sly Stallone, Roy Jones Jr, and Eddie Alvarez are all Blues as well.

“Scousers are all made of the same stuff, that hard, horrible, gritty determined kind of person.”

A fun fact about Molly:

“I’m from an Irish background, so I have 50 or 60 cousins.”

Next up for McCann?

“I want to retain the belt in September. I wouldn’t mind fighting at Madison Square Garden or Las Vegas in December.”

“Give me Valentina Shevchenko in Madison Square Garden.”

Go Meatball!